Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-18
2003-04-01
Tong, Nina (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S539230, C340S555000, C340S556000, C340S691100, C250S222100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06542079
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The following invention relates generally to the reduction of shrinkage for businesses. More particularly, the instant invention monitors for articles that could be obscured from the view of employees. In particular, the instant invention seeks to detect whether or not articles have been placed within an area that could avoid detection by employees during their normal course of routines associated with their duties. More specifically, the instant invention monitors a surface or surfaces of a cart used to transport articles. More specifically, the instant invention detects whether or not articles have been placed proximate a shelf. Once the instant invention detects the presence of an article or articles, the instant invention notifies the appropriate employees of the business.
The present invention employs infrared emitters and detectors, mounted to the bottom shelf of a shopping cart basket and directed toward one another, in order to detect articles placed on said bottom shelf and enabling the unit to transmit a signal to a receiver mounted at the checkout stand, which will trigger an alarm in order to signify the presence of such articles to a clerk utilizing said checkout stand.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Grocery stores, supermarkets, and other retail establishments commonly supply consumers with shopping carts in order to provide them with a means to collect all articles of merchandise the consumer wishes to purchase. Typically, the shopping cart is wheeled to the checkout stand and the items are unloaded either by the consumer, in the case of self service establishments, or by the clerk in full service establishments. This process allows inputting of the price of the merchandise into a point of sale system and to transfer said merchandise into paper or plastic disposable bags that are then taken from the store by the consumer.
It is often the case that shopping carts are designed in a manner which provides a primary basket as well as a lower shelf that is below the primary basket and just above the wheels of said cart. The lower shelf is frequently used for transporting bulky items such as of beverages, pet foods, expensive and dense quantities of meats and produce. Because said lower shelf is typically six (6) inches to one (1) foot from the ground, clerks employed by the retail establishment, either inadvertently or purposefully, often fail to remove articles of merchandise from said bottom shelf, thus precluding the entry of prices into the point of sale system, thereby increasing the shrinkage cost of the grocery or retail establishment.
Because of such loss, inventors created several inventions designed to prevent the aforementioned occurrence and to provide retailers with one solution to the growing problem of shrinkage in its various forms.
The following prior art reflects the state of the art of which applicant is aware and is included herewith to discharge applicant's acknowledged duty to disclose relevant prior art. It is stipulated, however, that none of these references teach singly nor render obvious when considered in any conceivable combination the nexus of the instant invention as disclosed in greater detail hereinafter and as particularly claimed.
U.S. Pat. No.
ISSUE DATE
INVENTOR
4,327,819
May 4, 1982
Coutta
4,723,118
February 2, 1988
Hooley, et al.
4,736,098
April 5, 1988
Rehrig
5,485,006
January 16, 1996
Allen, et al.
5,495,102
February 27, 1996
Fine
5,610,584
March 11, 1997
Schrade
5,883,968
March 16, 1999
Welch, et al.
5,910,769
June 8, 1999
Geisler
Non Patent Literature
Store-Scan, Inc., With Store-Scan's C.O.S.T. System You Can Always Be Sure It Will Be Profit, Feb. 1, 1999, entire brochure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,584 to Schrade discloses a system of employing optical devices at equal levels on both sides of the alleyway of the checkout stand. When the beam emitted from one device to the other is broken by an object of any kind, a signal is sent to the clerk via a receiver wired into the checkout stand that alerts them to the fact that articles are present upon the bottom shelf of the shopping cart. Whereas the present invention requires a simple and non destructive method of installation and implementation, the Schrade invention is cumbersome because it requires the modification and reconstruction of existing checkout stands. In contrast, the present invention simply requires the mounting of sensor units onto the bottom of the primary larger basket, and the wiring of the checkout stand receiver in order to access a power source and to provide proper placement of the checkout stand LED indicator.
Furthermore, the Schrade invention claims it is intended to operate within a retail environment in which the consumer is responsible for placing the articles of merchandise onto the sales counter. In contrast, the present invention is adaptable to all retail environments that utilize shopping carts because the unit is attached to the cart itself, thereby allowing convenient and cost effective conformity of the system to each retail environment based upon varying dimensions of checkout stands and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,102 to Fine employs a system similar to the Schrade invention, but does allow for the implementation of said system in a retail environment that employs full service checkout stands in which store employees remove merchandise from the carts and place them onto the counter for processing. However, the Fine invention must be adapted to a pre-existing point of sale (POS) system in order to operate. The signal indicating the presence of articles on the bottom rack of the cart is sent to the cash register itself which then communicates a message to the sales clerk and/or disallows them from further proceeding with the transaction without the entry of the said articles of merchandise into the POS system. The present invention requires no interfacing with existing POS system, nor does it require the creation of new POS systems in order for the device to effectively communicate to the sales clerk the as to the presence of merchandise on the bottom shelf of the shopping cart.
Furthermore, the Fine invention is unable to discern from articles placed on the bottom shelf of a shopping cart and objects such as humans positioned in the alleyway, and shopping carts that are not perfectly aligned with the predetermined point required to trigger the optical transmitter system, thus subjecting the unit to false readings. In time, the false readings will have the effect of conditioning the clerks employed by the retail establishments to ignore such false readings, thereby resulting in the clerks ignoring of true positive readings and the clerks will develop the habit of simply entering the override code and proceeding further without accounting for merchandise placed on the bottom shelf of the cart. This even further exacerbates the shrinkage problem already experienced by retailers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,006 to Allen, et al., also requires physical implementation into the checkout stand and relies upon the movement and subsequent stoppage thereof, by the cart itself before a signal is transmitted by the unit attached to the cart and received by the unit mounted at the checkout stand. Because said tasks are performed in such order by the present invention, there is no need for the shopping cart to be positioned exactly in a predetermined space in order to operate effectively.
Another attempted solution to the problem of bottom shelf merchandise shrinkage was that of U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,098 to Rehrig. In said invention, a conventional shopping cart must be adapted by including a pair of biasing springs and a reflector on the bottom tray, such that a checkout aisle photoelectric assembly is triggered by passage of a cart through the checkout stand aisle the photoelectric assembly is triggered by passage of a cart through the checkout stand aisle only when a load is on the bottom tray. This solution is ineffective in detecting the presence of any articles of insufficient weight, whereas the present invention would be able to d
Bielen, Jr. Theodore J.
Tong Nina
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